Pettingill's Wonderful Water
A natural spring flows from the rock at the base of Hennepin Bluff below this spot. According to tradition the iron-red mud at the spring provided pigment for Native Americans. White settlers of the 1850s believed the water had medicinal qualities. In 1875 the enterprising M.P.Pettingill capitalized on the popularity of the falls as a tourist mecca and health resort by building a spa and selling the water. The business was abandoned in the early 1880s when the source of the spring was traced to a dirty swamp some distance away.
Courtesy hmdb.org
